WHY YOU SHOULD CONSIDER RETIREMENT - part 5

Articles In This Section:

· WHY YOU SHOULD CONSIDER RETIREMENT - part 1

· WHY YOU SHOULD CONSIDER RETIREMENT - part 2

· WHY YOU SHOULD CONSIDER RETIREMENT - part 3

· WHY YOU SHOULD CONSIDER RETIREMENT - part 4

· WHY YOU SHOULD CONSIDER RETIREMENT - part 5

· WHY YOU SHOULD CONSIDER RETIREMENT - part 6

· WHY YOU SHOULD CONSIDER RETIREMENT - part 7

I repeat, this book is not for the person who will exist in such a way of life. If any reader has got this far and still subscribes to such an existence, I say right now that he might as well read no further. He will never see eye to eye with me and is wasting his time. If this sort of existence is supposed to be the American Dream, I say it is not a dream but a nightmare.

And to him who complains that what I say is against the American way of life, that our people must live in this manner and that it is the best way of life. That we owe a duty to our fellow man, or our country, or the world in which we live to live such an existence. To him I pound on the table top and shout that it is not so.

The greatest men that the world has ever produced did not, could not, live such a life. No great scientific discovery, no great work of art, no great book, ever came from a man or woman who remained in such a rut. Man makes his great discoveries; he leads a good and full life; he enjoys and gives enjoyment; only when he has leisure and the opportunity to develop himself.

Lord Byron, Shelley and Keats were great poets. But they never would have written verse had they spent their lives in the textile mills of Manchester.

From Phidias to Picasso there has never been a great artist except those who had freedom to pursue their art, who had the ability to escape, by whatever means, from the drudgery of life which besets ninety-nine out of a hundred of us.

The great inventions, the great scientific discoveries of our world have been made by men who were able to pursue their driving interests in freedom from an eight hour day or more devoted to drudgery.

What musical composer could have worked in his off hours, after a grueling day on a meaningless treadmill? What philosopher could have spun his theories after sitting at a desk working in an advertising agency trying to make people buy things they didn't really want with money they didn't really have?

But we need not be poets, writers, painters, scientists or philosophers to want and need a life free of drudgery and worry. No man can enjoy the potentials nature has awarded him without freedom from the pressure of modern existence. He must escape, he must free himself from the rut in which most are sunk, he must get off the treadmill.

The best manner in which a man or woman can serve the society to which they belong is to be happy and at peace with themselves. You cannot make others happy unless you yourself have achieved happiness. The persons who are best suited to making this a better world are those who have achieved serenity and peace of mind.